


abide in mortals

by ribtwist



Category: Trigun
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Body Horror, Crimes & Criminals, Dark, F/F, F/M, Incest, M/M, Manga Verse, Medical Experimentation, Porn With Plot, Power Imbalance, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Role Reversal
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-28
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-28 23:05:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14459808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ribtwist/pseuds/ribtwist
Summary: “Look, Vash,” She said, pointing out over the city. Even in the early hours of the morning, the city never slept. He looked out through the pane of glass and ignored the glare of neon signs and the headlights of railless commuter trains reflecting into his eyes. She was pointing to a screen advertisement of a highly tanned and overly sexy woman which had various patches of dead pixels changing the slogan from ‘make-up event tomorrow’ to read ‘make even tomorrow’.“They say that one small change can alter everything that happens to us. Do you ever wonder why we ended up here? And where we could have been instead?”He felt rooted to the spot and cold with guilt of decisions long passed.“No,” he answered. “I don’t.”





	abide in mortals

**Author's Note:**

> A few notes before we get started: this is wildly self indulgent fanfic at its finest and I won’t pretend otherwise. As with all my attempts to write some porn some major plot got in the way so hopefully this appeals to someone somewhere out there. If incest squicks you out then be reassured that takes place very later on. This is also not proof read, so please forgive weird phrasing and typos. I will update any new content wwarning when it comes up.

She hadn’t expected it, but she had no one to blame but herself when she grabbed the knife in a swift motion. Blood ran down her arm. It felt cool and unpleasant against her adrenaline fevered skin. She had always known Vash was the more reserved of the twins. So cautious and critical. She had hoped he would eventually lighten up and become more relaxed. To follow Knives’ example and embrace the possibility and positivity of a new future together, with humans and plants alike. And while Vash didn’t necessarily have the academic smarts the same way his twin did, he had a keen emotional intelligence and intuition which of course had never let him down. He had never known how justified he had been in his doubt of a peaceful existence. Especially when his butchered sister floated in preservatives just a few wings from the room.

He jerked the knife out of her fist and she barely had time to register the fact before he drove it into her stomach. She fell to the floor blood pooling around her in an alarming rate. She had always known that choosing to die was wrong. There was always a way to continue. But a small, very small, part of her felt relief. After a year of living with sour and ugly guilt snarled in her chest, she was now struck with what felt like divine karma. A god was perhaps looking out for these children after all.

She glanced up through her hair at the boy she had come to think of as her son just in time to his fierce, satisfied expression. She put her head down and felt the world go quiet.

Vash kneeled while looking down at Rem. The feeling thundering through him was an unknown one. He had never felt so justified in a single action. All the terror and uncertainty he had been trapped in for the past days had dissipated in an instant. Only when the bright blood seeped out and touched his knee did he feel a dawning horror. Rem was not moving. In fact, it looked like she was not breathing at all. No matter how conflicted he felt about her at the moment, all of her warmth and comfort was gone and in its place a small twisted emotion that was heavy and complicated. He hated what she had allowed to happen but he still loved her and he did not want this. Never this, he decided.

A panicked scream made its way out of his throat just as a high pitch siren started. Vash looked around wildly as red light flooded the medical bay. Years later, he would realize that it would make sense for SEEDs to install a monitoring chip in their only active crew member. Accidents did happen and an entire fleet could not be left alone and unchecked in the case of a single person’s death. But in that moment he had never considered, never thought. 

There was no time to wonder what to do. He ignored the siren and rolled Rem on to her back and dragged her towards a healing pod. Her blood made his day old clothes stick wet and tacky to his thighs but he didn’t care. She was dying and no one but him could help her. He dragged her on to the platform and arranged her body carefully before hitting the buttons on the side of the pod to activate the advanced technology that would delicately mend all her tissues and organs. He sank down next to the machine listening to its reassuring hum and rested his forehead against it as if praying. He lost count of how long he kneeled there, wishing he were somewhere else. Anywhere. Far away from humans, from Plants, from cruelty and harsh realities. But when all he had known was the endless free fall of space he had nowhere to wish for. Not like Rem. What had he done.

He heard people running down the hall. The crew was awake. What were they thinking right now having been awakened twice in a span of a week? Vash started to shake, thinking of what these people had done. What they would do to him. The bay door swished opened and he very slowly looked up, wondering what he looked like kneeling in blood and drenched in it too. A boy ready to face the gallows.

Conrad had always been a calculated man. Even when he was young and green he knew exactly how to play the politics of every endeavour and institute he entered. He had graduated at the top of his class from Oxford and won the respect and esteem of all his professors and peers. He left school and dabbled in several prestigious fields until he ultimately, somehow ended up in biotechnology. He doubted previous generations realized how important this field would become in the future. Their planet was in the throes of death, and with each passing year it seemed more creatures became extinct and countries became wastelands as the rise of super viruses killed entire populations. Slowly governments around the globe had reluctantly agreed that escape was the only option left and started sinking their budgets into a deep space colonization program. Conrad knew his interests were less in space and travel and more in science and innovation, so when he was invited to start research on a top secret operation for project SEEDs he packed his things and moved to America within a week. 

What awaited him was miles away from the ordinary. A spliced and cloned species, or that is how they advertised them in his introduction briefing. But Conrad knew different. This was pure and simply playing god. The creatures themselves were something to behold. Almost human but not quite. Long limbed, fair hair, black eyes and feathered. Like angels contained in a snow globe, kept secret and safe away from the world. But as he analyzed their sprawling and complicated DNA on his computer screen he quickly realized that their glass prisons were containing, not protecting. As they probed and studied and experimented it became clearer and clearer that the answers to their problems had been found. The ultimate test in these creatures abilities was the Last Run. Such a surge of energy like nothing he had ever seen before. It kept him excited and passionate to continue with this work. They unveiled the final piece of the SEEDs project to the public on a chilly December afternoon. The complete lack of protest at their creation should have been a warning sign, but Conrad hadn’t cared as they smiled with proud self-congratulations for the photographers snapping their pictures. 

No matter how seemingly magical and capabled their Plants were there was no helping Earth. It was too diseased and blackened to save. Project SEEDs began accepting applications for passengers and he found himself recruited to be assisting director to the head Plant engineer on fleet number fourteen. The idea of frozen sleep made him nervous. He was not so young anymore, but prestige and a certain sense of responsibility made him sign the form which secured his spot on the crew.

He met Rem Saverem a year later. He was impressed that someone so young was so motivated and efficient. They sat in headquarters’ lounge and chatted about their work in their different departments and laughed over how ragtag their new team seemed from an outsider’s perspective. When there was nothing left to discuss they watched the tiny television in the corner of the room in a comfortable silence. Somewhere in New Zealand a rally was being televised where a group of pro project SEEDs were trying to convince the remaining reluctant population to make their final journey. They held handmade signs with words in red paint that said “Project SEEDs; Save Earth (from) End Days”.

It felt like the beginning of something beyond them.

In the present, Conrad was unprepared for the room. The Plant children he had met only days ago had been so healthy and lively. Nothing like the boy now curled in on himself as if expected to be executed at any moment. He was gaunt and unhealthy looking and it only made the picture of him sitting in his co-worker’s blood all the more alarming. The rest of the crew were in an uproar, trying to make sense of the scene. Vash was steeley and then slowly his lower lip began to tremble and tears rolled down his face until he was sobbing.

Yes, thought Conrad. A child was right. Just a year old. He vaguely tuned into his crewmates’ hysterical conversation.

“Who is this? Where did he come from?”

“There’s another one over there in the pod.”

“What happened to Rem?”

“He killed her.”

“What is happening?”

“Could these kids be--”

And before Conrad knew it he heard himself speaking. He had made many mistakes in his life, but this was something he could do. He could never ask for forgiveness but he could save these brothers. Maybe that in some small way would grant him peace of mind.

“It looks like Rem has violated protocol,” he said with as much authority as he could muster, trying to think of the lie before it left his lips, “I can hardly blame her. It’s lonely on active duty. And she always wanted to be a mother. But opening a cryopreservation chamber and awakening civilians is a class A offense. Which section did you come from, child?”

Vash raised his tear streak faced and looked at him in confusion. Conrad silently willed him to play along. He didn’t glance at the crew who were making confused faces, doubting their own conclusions and assumptions. Vash swallowed and in a hoarse whisper said; “I don’t remember.”

“Not unlikely,” Conrad said smoothly, trying to sound as confident as he needed to in order to convince everyone. “Cryonics is known to damage the hippocampus when not properly resuscitated. Rem was very smart but she is not a doctor. It was a great risk in extracting you. You’re lucky to still have your motor skills and higher functioning ability.”

Now all eyes were turned on Vash, sizing him up.

“He killed her,” repeated Mary as if that were not plain by the blood and the knife sitting sinisterly in the middle of the room, “I think that counts as a loss of higher functioning. He is violent. Who knows what he would have done if given free reign.”

And that was one truth that Conrad could not reshape and present differently. Vash let out a small helpless sob that sounded much like ‘she’s not dead, she’s not’. Gordon moved forward very carefully, and then around Vash to Rem’s pod. The boy watched him wearily, tears making a come back. After a few moments Gordon straightened up.

“The monitor indicates an erratic heart beat and pulse. She is unstable but she’s alive for now.”

The group made a various noises of relief and concern but Vash’s strained voice cut through it all.

“She… she’s fine?”

“No,” said Gordon after a moment, “What you did is very serious. It’s all up to Rem on whether she pulls through. We will help anyway we can but it’s a gamble.” 

He paused and then continued.

“But more troubling is we have no means for lock down or dealing with crime. What are we going to do?” 

He looked at Conrad who could only think of one.

“We will put him back into cold sleep,” he said, vaguely wondering if the process even worked on Plants. A year ago he would have been fascinated with the prospect of studying this. Now he felt sick.

“We will make a file and note all that happened here and when we arrive at our destination we will have a higher council deal with this. We are not outfitted to pass judgement. I don’t think Rem would have wanted that either. A fair trial.”

The crew were silent and then one by one they nodded. Vash was staring, eyes flicking to each stranger’s face.

“I’m not a criminal,” he said at last. “I need to stay with Rem to make sure she gets better.”

Mary frowned.

“You’ve attempted murder. Might have even committed it if things go south. That’s criminal, kid.”

“No,” he said again a touch hysterical. “I didn’t mean to.”

But from the panicked look on his face Conrad could tell that Vash saw the inevitable coming. 

“All right,” said Mary, reaching down to grab Vash by the arm, “let’s get this over with.”

“What about the other one?” said Aaron, suddenly.

All of them paused and looked at the other boy. No one had thought to give him any mind. He lay unconscious, innocent and unfazed about the drama unfolding a few feet away.

“We will also process him and put him under as well,” said Conrad, carefully. 

But despite his best efforts to appear neutral Vash still sensed that something was wrong.

“We’ll be together, right?” Vash said. “You’ll put us together, Mr. Conrad?”

If the crew found it odd that Vash knew his name they did not remark on it.

“Of course not,” said Gordon a touch too aggressively. He was fiddling with Rem’s recovery pod. “Only one of you has done wrong here and we have to make sure everything is orderly before a new person takes watch. All civilians are priority for reanimation on first contact. Convicts might be a delayed procedure.”

It took Vash a few moments to digest those words before a tumble of “no, no, no’s” started to erupt. 

Conrad winced, and went to help Mary drag him on to his feet. Vash struggled but he was so weak from malnutrition that they easily were able to handcuff him, and carry him to the sleeping dock. Someone had fetched new clothes and cleaned him up as they readied a chamber for him. He twisted and screamed and the crew commented on how unpleasant this was as if they had not done worse.

The sedative needle was injected into the boy’s arm and he finally went limp. Conrad leaned over, pretending to adjust something inside the chamber but whispered just so a half conscious Vash could hear.

“Stay smart, and stick to this story. I will do my best to protect Knives and Rem. Please have faith in me.”

Vash made a sound but it was lost as the hatch’s door came down and freezant was injected. It was a sleep of many years, only he did not know it at the time.


End file.
